Design Lounge

Unique Open Plan Home Design Tips

Written by Scott Chapman - December 2nd, 2015

Open plan design is a contemporary approach to creating your interior space. Instead of using walls to partition your home into individual rooms, you can do away with them to open up a wide and spacious living area which often serves multiple different uses. For example, a kitchen could be opened up into food preparation and eating areas for the family to relax in – thereby making it the true hub of the home. This approach not only allows you to enjoy a modern interior design with lots of breathable space, but it’s also better suited to the lifestyles of many modern families.

You might have seen plenty of ideas, but what about open plan design tips? Those little golden nuggets of knowledge which could help you make your open plan renovation that little bit better? Not to worry. After creating hundreds of different open plan designs for clients throughout London, Bischell has learned a thing or two. Here are a few of our top open plan design tips to help you get more out of your new living space:

Suit your open plan design to your lifestyle

Open planning can take many different forms, so it’s best to adapt it to the lifestyles of you and any family members. For example, if you have children, then you can create an open plan kitchen and living area to allow you to look after your home whilst spending time with the kids. If you entertain a lot of guests, you can create an open plan lounge and dining area which is the main focal point of your home. Make sure your open plan design works for you.

Get the right furniture to avoid empty spaces

It might seem counter-productive, but a wide and spacious open plan living area can result in the space looking a bit empty without the correct use of furniture. That’s why it’s best to fill up thespace with your favourite furniture whilst also retaining the open and breathable environment of an open plan design. Big pieces of furniture such as sofas, tables and even fitted islands can break up the space and retain that open plan feel without it feeling like the other side of the room is a long walk away across a barren area. Rugs are also a fantastic way to add a sense of purpose to a large patch of open floor without taking up any space or blocking views to other areas of the room.

Explore the use of columns and varying ceiling heights

A fantastic design addition which adds a luxurious look is the use of columns and differing ceiling heights. If support columns already exist, then they can be worked into the existing design, but even if they don’t, then they can still be added to provide a stately feeling of grandeur to the living space. Varying ceiling heights also help you to subtly break up a single open plan room into individual zones without adding any partition walls or objects which take away from the nature of the open plan design.

Consider lighter tones

Whilst spacious open plan design provides more leeway for the use of darker colours, it’s also possible to use brighter colour schemes to add to the airy nature of open plan living spaces. Brighter tones help the room feel lighter and are better at reflecting natural light to disperse it across the whole area.

Accessorise your walls

Open plan design often results in walls which are far longer compared to traditional rooms, so it can be helpful to accessorise them to avoid walls which look too empty or simplistic in relation to the rest of the room. Pictures, artwork, shelves and feature wall designs are great ways of achieving this which allow you to experiment with different ideas. You can also opt for more permanent solutions by installing spot lights and LED lights which set an ambience and look highly luxurious.

Keep an eye on the location of electrical sockets!

It’s every technology-savvy family’s worst nightmare: your favourite seat is too far away from the nearest wall socket, so when your battery runs low on your phone, tablet or laptop, then you need to sacrifice it and place it somewhere to charge. This is especially an issue with very large open plan spaces where even an electrical cord may not be long enough to reach across. That’s why it’s important to ensure that, if the renovation includes new electrical sockets, then they are installed in key locations next to the most common seating areas. If the walls are too far away, you could even install floor sockets which can be placed anywhere in the room and appear under a retractable cover.